An old brick building on the former West Campus of UMass Lowell on Princeton Street in Chelmsford was a shell after an August 2013 fire. SUN photos/ David H. Brow (David H. Brow)

CHELMSFORD -- Money has been included in a Senate infrastructure bond bill to demolish three vacant buildings at the former UMass Lowell west campus off Princeton Street at the Lowell line.

The buildings have been vacant for a decade. A fire last August destroyed one building on the site, which was later knocked down.

The only occupied building on the site is leased to the state Department of Youth Services for the Rotenberg School, a juvenile-detention center.

The House and Senate will now work on a compromise bill for final passage. The governor's approval is also needed.

Once the bill is signed into law, the administration must direct money to the project and the treasurer must sell bonds to fund it, said state Sen. Mike Barrett, who announced the funding Monday. The bond bill amendment is "an important step," he said, "but we're not there yet."

"These buildings pose a real public safety threat," Barrett said in a statement. "Neighbors in the surrounding community are rightly concerned."

UMass Lowell had sought in 2008 to have the vacant buildings demolished, according to a letter from Chancellor Marty Meehan and Jane Tewksbury, then-commissioner of the Department of Youth Services, to the commissioner of the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance.

One potential use considered for the 34-acre site is a regional 911 dispatch center. The Northern Middlesex Council of Governments is also considering Tewksbury State Hospital for the proposed facility.